Colorado Springs

Help!

Good news: my wife and I are returning to CO.

Bad news: Summit county the farthest East we've ever lived in the state. I'm trying to find out about trails, rides, and good places to buy a house. Could you provide any guidence? I'm not to concerned about a lot of things realtors seem to know: the schools, current color schemes, blah, blah. When I ask them about trails and road rides they look at me like I just grew a second head. The biggest thing to me is how close is it to riding? Ideally I'd love to be able to ride out the door for road or to trail head. Would we do better to live in one of the towns nearby like Manitou?

Do you have work in Summit County, if so what city. Summit county is quite the distance from Manitou so you may want to rethink that unless you are working in the Springs or up in Divide.Can you clarify.

Bad news: Summit county the farthest East we've ever lived in the state. I'm trying to find out about trails, rides, and good places to buy a house. Could you provide any guidence? I'm not to concerned about a lot of things realtors seem to know: the schools, current color schemes, blah, blah. When I ask them about trails and road rides they look at me like I just grew a second head. The biggest thing to me is how close is it to riding? Ideally I'd love to be able to ride out the door for road or to trail head. Would we do better to live in one of the towns nearby like Manitou?

Thanks a bunch. I'll be seeing you trailside soon.

there are alot of trails you can ride to if you live in manitou. but a house on the west side of c-springs would actually be closer to cheyenne canon, which is the main source for mountain biking trails. stay on the west side of the springs or manitou and you can't go wrong for places to ride.

1. Downtown--riding distance away from all choices below in about 15-20 minutes
2. SW corner of town near N. Cheyenne Canyon
3. East side of town near Palmer Park
4. Manitou Springs
5. NW corner of town near Ute Valley.

With that being said, even if you moved to the NE corner of town, you can drive to the canyon (SW corner) in 30-35 minutes on the weekend and 45-50 minutes in weekday traffic.

The east side of town is stereotypical suburbia with miles and miles of houses. It has by far the best bang for the buck and the most convinient shopping. The west central and downtown is full of old houses with a lot of character but they are more expensive. The NW and SW corners of town are newer with relatively expensive homes (although, if you've lived in Summit, this may not be an issue).

The only part of town I would suggest avoiding is the SE corner--everything else is pretty decent. Where will you be working? What is your budget? What kind of riding would you like to be close to (big climbs/descents or technical riding)?

thanks

Joe Mtbr: We used to live in Summit, years ago. Agreed, it is a long way from the Springs.

We are both employed in the Springs now and returning from out of state.

The west side of town sounds like it might have real merit. I mostly ride marthon XC: Leadville, Larime, Cascade, Firecracker that sort of thing. So the more trails the better. Free ride, DH and the like don't really do it for me; I'm a recovering roadie. I still do a ton of road miles so a variety of good places to ride the road would also be good.

How realistic and/or safe is it to ride out of the downtown area?

We are currently escaping suburban purgatory so I'd like to do my best to avoid rows of sprawl into the horizon if at all possible even if that means a slightly higher home cost with lower square footage.

What are the major trails and trail systems? What is the best place to get 411 on them?

Here are some west/southwest side neighborhood names to throw at your realtor. Each of these has great access to trails from your door, but as Kristian alluded, housing prices tend to be on the high side (for the Springs) in these spots.

Skyway - up on the hillside and bordered by Cheyenne Canyon and Bear Creek Canyon.

Crystal Hills (Manitou hood) - Bordered by the new Red Rocks park.

Old Colorado City - Mostly old homes. Some have been fixed up nicely, but some of the neighborhoods look a little spotty.

Pleasant Valley - how about a backyard backing up to Garden of the Gods.

A little further N and E (Easy riding distance to Palmer Park)

Patty Jewett, Garden Ranch, Old Ranch, Village Seven, University Park

You might also be able to narrow things down by asking the realtor to look at homes near Palmer Park, Ute Valley Park, Garden of the Gods, Red Rocks Park, and Cheyenne Canyon.

Listen to loudpawlz as he gives great advice. Yes, Manitou rocks! There are a lot of beautiful houses between there and the springs right off Hwy 24, like near the Cimmeron (sp?) exit as well. I don't live there but have been there many times for work and play. I think you will find a great quality of life out there (I grew up in Leadville so I know what you gave up in Summit), good luck!!

Black Sheep...where it'ss at!!
"I'm not known for my patience. Patience is a polite quality and often appropriate, but it rarely gets things done. Impatience, however, is the hunger for results and intolerance for excuses and delays." LA

We are currently escaping suburban purgatory so I'd like to do my best to avoid rows of sprawl into the horizon if at all possible even if that means a slightly higher home cost with lower square footage.

What are the major trails and trail systems? What is the best place to get 411 on them?

Thanks again

If you know the greenways and side streets, it is very safe to ride from downtown to all of the major trail systems. We used to meet at Colorado College on the north side of downtown and ride everywhere for after work rides. The "old north end" section of COS is probably my favorite neighborhood with lots of large old homes (and a few small ones too).

However, for the kind of riding you mentioned, you should really concentrate on the southwest part of town near Cheyenne Canyon. It has the longest climbs (other than Barr Trail) and the most variety. You can probably find a lot of info about Cap'n Jacks, the Chutes, Jones Downhill, etc if you look around MTBR or in a guide book. Other trail concentrations are Palmer Park and Ute Valley and there is information about both of those in most books too.

Manitou is a cool town with everything from shacks to million dollar homes. There are a lot of good reasons to live there vs. the Springs (mainly the open minded, liberal population) but biking is not one of them IMHO. The only real trail that is unique to Manitou is Barr which goes to the top of Pikes Peak. It shares a few trails with COS like Intemann and Red Rocks and you can access them just as easily from the west side as from Manitou.

As a resident of the SW side of the Springs (Cheyenne Meadows/Broadmoor Bluffs area), I've found this area of town works really well for trail accessability. If your comfortable with being in the general proximity of Fort Carson, you'll be located close to Cheyenne Canon, and the new state park currently under development at the base of NORAD. General timeline for completion of Cheyenne Mountain State Park is sometime this Fall and it will have a pretty extensive network of singletrack trail courtesy of Medicine Wheel and other volunteer trailbuilding organizations. I also like the proximity to Highway 115 for those weekend jaunts to Canon City, Buena Vista, and Salida for riding and boating.